Perfect
by Constipated Waffle
Summary: Linoone always thought her team was a bunch of ingrates who didn't care for her. But her journey in Terra Cave is about to change her whole perception.


Perfect

**Author's Note: Hey. So if you're here, either Ned or I probably directed you here, so you're probably from Nuzlocke. This is a story I wrote about Nedlocke's Generic Emerald run, specifically about Linoone, his oldest member when he concluded. Not much else I can say, but I hope you enjoy!**

Azumarill sat down in the blistering sun, feeling the heat beat down on him. "Man, it sure is blistering hot out here," he noted.

His trainer Ryan barely noticed his complaints, peering down into the entrance of Terra Cave. This was going to be a difficult final battle indeed. He looked down at his six Pokémon trailing behind: Azumarill, Vileplume, Manectric, Solrock (who he sometimes referred to as Amaterasu, a character from one of his favorite games), Ninetales, and Linoone. He thought about Linoone, realizing how vital a player she had been to get him this far. Her power had helped defeat not just one, but two Elite Four members, and had paved the way to Wallace, the Champion of the Hoenn region. Or, well, former Champion- Ryan's defeat of him landed him in the position of Hoenn's most powerful trainer, a role of which he took seriously.

This is how he had landed up here: some civilian reports had shown that Groudon, the legendary Pokémon of the sun, was possibly holed up in here. It was time to put Groudon back in a deep sleep, permanently. If something were to happen to the people of Hoenn- the people he was supposed to protect- he would never forgive himself.

"Hey, boss, I can get some action against this here Groudon, yeah?" Ryan's Vileplume noted, snapping him back into the real world.

"Yeah, your Solar Beam attack will come in real handy in this blistering sun," Ryan noted, peering yet again into the depths of the cave. He didn't know why he was so nervous: after all, he was the Champion, correct? He swallowed a lump in his throat and turned to all of his members.

"All right, guys, this is it. The climatic battle, to prove we're the real protectors of Hoenn. To show we're the rightful Champions." He peered out at the faces in his team. Vileplume looked confident, as always, Azumarill just looked hot, being the more "apathetic" of his team, Amaterasu looked almost nostalgic, probably the sun reminding her of the journey as it tended to do, Manectric looked scared and timid, but still willing to follow her trainer to the end, and Ninetales looked, well, she still had her poker face like always. But deep down inside, Ryan knew she cared for all of them.

Then Ryan glanced around, looking for his Linoone, the member with the most seniority on his team. She had been there since the very beginning, and Ryan still hadn't figured out how she worked. She was quiet, and didn't talk to most anybody, at least, not since Marshtomp's death. Why, the only person she ever really talked to was Ned, the gender-bender Dustox, and when she died protecting the rest of the team from a stealthy Electrode, Linoone had almost completely shut down her feelings. She would still battle for Ryan and take a bullet for him anytime, but as Ryan thought more about her, he realized she never trusted him.

Meanwhile, a long, slim figure looked down at him from a rock slab above the cave. Linoone shook her head, wondering if she should just stay outside. She was going to be of no use against this battle, anyway. Azumarill and Vileplume definitely had this covered, after all, and she couldn't help them pave the way through the cave with all those powerful Pokémon. No matter what Ryan said, she knew what he thought of her: she was the goon, a derp, a useless Pokémon caught on the first route. The only way she could be useful was if she beat herself up for extra attack. She turned around in disgust and started to climb up the side of the cliff.

She wondered why her life was so terrible. Just when she confided in Ned, her friend with the gender-bender name, she had died in a heroic sacrifice trying to save the rest of the team. Linoone tearfully remembered all the death and pain she'd been through. Zubat, Poochyena, Shroomish, Marshtomp, and especially Ned were all terrible losses, and she remembered each one with terrible regrets.

She had never experienced death before Poochyena. When he was brutally killed, she was far away hunting for Pokémon to train on. She never even got to learn what had killed the Poochyena. She chalked it up to a mistake, a one-in-a-million chance of death.

But then Brawly came. His Makuhita was a terrible monster who killed both Shroomish and Zubat. They were both valuable team members, even if Zubat was a trifle annoying, but nobody deserved to die. Afterwards, she experienced a sort of combination of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and survivor's guilt. After that day, she vowed to watch over her team and make sure that they never had to experience this pain again. It was too much to handle. So she watched over her team, helped them train. And it worked, for a period of time.

Then the Winstrates came. Her superior Marshtomp was out fighting for his life as per usual, when it took a Hi Jump Kick to the face. The pain was too much, and he died instantly on the spot. At that point, she entered a deep period of depression and began to wonder how she could live in a world with so much death and so much pain. Just when she began to think about running off- or worse- Ned found her.

When Ned revealed herself to be a caring and compassionate person under all that joking, Linoone confided in her, all of her secrets and desires. They were best friends, inseparable. They worked together to keep each other alive, and helped the other members train up to be on their level, too.

The two of them were walking together in the Aqua Hideout, watching each other's backs. What they didn't realize was that watching each other's backs didn't help the other five any. The Electrode jumped out at Manectric, targeting her like it knew she was the weak link. The explosion hit like a ton of breaks. Ned jumped in front of the Electrode using a Protect. It helped for a moment. Then Linoone saw Ned tearfully whisper "Good-bye." Linoone didn't understand. Then she remembered that Protect couldn't take much pressure.

The broken figure of her best friend moth lay in front of her. She was heartbroken. She stayed on the team in hopes of finding a legendary or something that could revive Ned. But being a Champion had its limits.

She was done here. Her goal in life was to revive Ned, and if she couldn't accomplish that, she had no more use on this team. Ryan could train up the Spoink he had been fawning over for a while. She reached the top of the mountain just in time to hear a roar and an earthquake. She didn't stay conscious long enough to regret running away.

When she was revived, Ryan was standing above her figure, feverishly trying to heal her with his potions. He picked her up in a hug as soon as he saw she was alive. "I'm so glad her okay!" Ryan cried with tears in his eyes. Vileplume stood in front, handing items up from the bag. Manectric was crying over in the corner with equally depressed looking Azumarill and Amaterasu trying and failing to comfort her. Ninetales was… wait, was Ninetales crying? The first show of emotion she had seen from the stuck-up fox.

As soon as everyone saw she was okay, they all smiled wide. Ninetales turned around, trying to pretend she didn't care, but her secret was out. Everyone else ran over and gave her happy words and the like, just happy she was alive. It was then that she realized she was loved on this team.

Just when she felt happy to be alive, another earthquake took over the cave, shaking some stalactites- or were they stalagmites? She couldn't really ever tell- and making a loud echo.

"All right, team, let's get ourselves a move on," Azumarill determined. "We need to move fast if we want to stop Groudon."

"Ye- yeah," Manectric agreed, still nervous as ever. "Let's, um, let's move on."

The team pushed their way through the cave as Linoone lost herself in thought. Why oh why would she ever even think of abandoning her team? They were so nice to her, so kind… how could she ever think of leaving them? The sheer stupidity of her whole mindset then… was just too much for words. She loved everybody on this team… and she kept all these secrets from them? It was a terrible thing for her to do.

Then there was an avalanche. It most have been one of the earthquakes earlier shaking some rocks loose or something, but regardless, the rocks came crashing down on the roof of the cave. That, in turn, caused a cave-in that came falling right on Manectric and Ninetales.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Manectric screamed and started to hyperventilate. Ninetales rolled her eyes and blasted fire at the rocks, but to no avail. Ammy tried to use her psychic power to lift the rocks, but the caved-in area they were in made it a futile task.

"Go on without us, we'll be fine!" Ninetales called out. "We'd be useless against Groudon and his earthquakes anyway. Hopefully that pampered brat Steven will see our signal soon and come check on us."

Azumarill saluted them with gusto. "Brave soldiers you two are," he noted, despite the fact Manectric was weeping like a baby.

"Good luck with getting' outta them rocks, eh," Vileplume added, throwing some food rations he had brought along to them. Ammy simply nodded: being a rock slab, she couldn't actually talk. But her sympathy was still expressed to the two fallen comrades.

"See you two later," Ryan said, feeling guilty about leaving them behind. But what could he do? None of his team members could help lift up the pile of rocks, and he wasn't a Machamp. So he had to press onward.

Linoone thought for a bit. She realized just how terrible she was to her partners, and how they cared for her anyway. After a bit of debating, she finally decided to talk to Ryan about how she felt.

"Hey, Ryan?" she whispered. "I know this isn't really the time for small talk, but I just wanna let you know- I just wanna let you know that you guys are amazing. I love you guys."

Ryan smiled a bit, letting his eyes show outside his usually half-closed eyelids. He was usually reserved himself, but he still definitely cared for all of his team, and for, well, all of Hoenn, really.

"That- that means a lot, Linoone," he said, knowing about her usual reservations about talking about- well, anything, really. She was very quiet, especially since the tragic death of Ned, so her talking at all was a huge step. "I know you have your doubts about being on this team, but you don't have to worry about dying, you're powerful enough to keep yourself alive and you have five team members willing to take a bullet for you."

Linoone stared at Ryan for a minute.

"Okay, four team members who will take a bullet for you. Don't worry about Ninetales, she'll come around."

Linoone grinned as the remainder of her team smiled in approval. "Yeah, you're a superior to even me, soldier! You've been around the longest of us all!" Vileplume just grinned approvingly, as Solrack levitated over. Life was working out good.

Then another shake rumbled from underground, this time sending a deep rumble through the cave. Azumarill, seeing the rumbles pushing forward towards Ryan, pushed him out of the way, taking the pain instead.

"Ugh!" Azumarill groaned as the pain rippled through his body. He fell to his knees in pain, trying and failing to hold himself up.

"Azumarill? Are you okay?" Ryan asked fervently as he ran over to his fallen comrade. The effects the earthquake had on Azumarill were immediately noticeable.

"Go… on," he whispered, pulling out a Super Potion and applying it to himself. "I'll live…"

"No, we're not leaving you here, not like this," Linoone commanded, looking for some way to fix the problem at hand. Then she looked over at Amaterasu. "Ammy, you are a valuable member of this team and probably the most powerful, but you aren't exactly cut out to fight Groudon. Can you stay behind and watch Azumarill while we deal with Groudon."

Ammy just nodded and floated over to her teammate, who had lost consciousness but was still breathing. Ryan gulped and commanded Vileplume and Linoone to keep moving.

"Good job with Azumarill, Linoone," Ryan whispered. "Quick thinking is invaluable."

"Thanks, Ryan," Linoone whispered back. She loved being on this team.

Finally, the three arrived at the bottom and center of the cave. At first, there was nothing to be seen but a huge pile of lava. Then all Hell broke loose.

Groudon emerged from the pit and roared, then blasted a huge, concentrated burst of fire at Ryan and his two team members. Linoone and Vileplume pushed Ryan out of the way and took the fire blast for him.

Vileplume fell to the floor, sliding down the side of the volcano to his inevitable death. Just before he landed in lava, however, a psychic power lifted him up and carried him to safety. Ryan and the weakened Linoone turned around to see Amaterasu, who was picking up Vileplume, and Azumarill, who was using a slab of rock as a crutch.

"I woke up just after you guys left, and we decided to follow you to ensure your safety. Good thing we did," Azumarill explained in the weakest voice Linoone had ever heard. "Can we possibly stop Groudon?"

"I can." Linoone stepped bravely to the plate, ready to protect her team.

"Are you sure?" Ryan asked, recovering from his shock.

"I will live, Ryan. I can do this." In actuality, Linoone was pretty sure she would die. But she had mooched off her team and been a jerk long enough. She owed them this.

Ryan reached for his bag to get some medicine, but the bag had burned in the fight and there was only one item left for him to use: an X Defense.

"Linoone, you-" Ryan started, but Linoone grabbed the X Defense and headed straight for Groudon.

"Hey! Hot-head! Look down here!" she shouted. The rampaging Groudon looked down at her and roared like Linoone had never heard before. But she still stood strong.

The rain came pouring down as Linoone performed her rain dance move, stopping the sun from beating down on her. She shrugged off the next fir e blast attack and then she began to focus.

The water was gathered into a surf attack as Linoone started her onslaught. All the rain disappeared while Linoone created a giant tsunami. Groudon tried to evaporate it with yet another fire blast, but it was no use.

Linoone threw the tidal wave at Groudon. It crashed into him and drowned him in water.

Groudon panted, tried to lift his head up, then crashed onto the ground, creating one last earthquake before Groudon took one final gasp and fainted.

Linoone looked in fear at the body of Groudon. It wasn't dead, but it was going to take a long time to recover.

Ryan slowly walked up to Linoone, who had just defeated the possible toughest Pokémon in Hoenn. Slowly, the other three walked up to her too. The five all shared in a group hug. Then Ryan whispered, "Linoone, you may be considered a derp, but you're the greatest freaking derp in history."

Linoone smiled. This was the life she had always wanted, forget her ideas about running away. She had the best team ever.

"Wait, we still need Manectric and Ninetales," Vileplume interrupted. Everybody looked at him and rolled their eyes. Then they started up to the upper area of the cave.

This was the perfect life, Linoone decided. Perfect indeed.

THE END


End file.
